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First Posted: 12/7/2013
(AP) Melsahn Basabe had a season-high 15 points and No. 23 Iowa cruised past Drake 83-66 on a neutral floor Saturday night.
Devyn Marble and freshman Peter Jok each scored 14 for Hawkeyes (9-1), who won their fourth straight over the intrastate-rival Bulldogs.
Iowa closed the first half on a 10-0 run and never looked back, stretching its lead to 23 points with 5:18 left.
Chris Caird led the Bulldogs (6-2) with 21 points. Their winning streak was snapped at four games.
Iowa improved to 57-10 against Drake, which shot just 31 percent in the second half.
Jok played two years at Des Moines Roosevelt High about 4 miles from where the Hawkeyes played on Saturday night before transferring to nearby West Des Moines Valley.
Jok made his homecoming perhaps the best game of his young career. He had seven straight points to help keep the Bulldogs from extending an early lead and added a pair of baskets as Iowa took control midway through the second half.
Jok finished with a career-high seven rebounds and fell just a point shy of his personal best of 15 against Abilene Christian earlier this year.
Jarrod Uthoff had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Hawkeyes.
Drake raced out to a surprising 6-1 start that included a three-day, three-game sweep of the recent Fresno State Classic.
The Bulldogs opened with a blistering display of shooting against the Hawkeyes.
Drake was 62 percent from the floor in the first 15 minutes and hit eight 3-pointers en route to a 40-39 lead. But the Hawkeyes found some traction with their transition game, and four different Iowa players hit layups for a 49-40 lead at the break.
The shots that fell so easily didn’t do so in the second half for Drake, which lost by double digits for the first time this season.
Richard Carter had 18 points for the Bulldogs, who were outscored 42-12 in the paint.
The Hawkeyes host Farleigh Dickinson on Monday night before playing at 17th-ranked Iowa State which beat Northern Iowa 91-82 in OT on the same floor earlier Saturday in one of the most highly anticipated matchups in the long history of the rivalry.
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Follow Luke Meredith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LukeMeredithAP
Associated Press